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Decluttering/Home Q&A: 10.3.2023

Dana K White

24,851 views

I'm answering questions submitted at AskDanaKWhite.com. Go there to ask questions for future lives.

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01.50: How do you deal with family members who technically accept the container concept, but who are happy (and determined) to keep more than what comfortably fits?

10.57: How to declutter different spaces in my home and house?

14.08: Do you have a scheduled day for errands and shopping? I find when I do errands I can't do housework. When I have doctor appointments that cuts into work I need to do.

17.21: How do you get yourself or others to actually take out the trash and not just study for a phD (pile it higher and deeper)

22.06: Do you ever just throw away a whole container without going through it.

24.21: After decluttering my bedroom furniture, I felt a little exposed. I'm wondering if others have felt uncomfortable after decluttering and therefore filled their space back with items or given up?

29.18: What are your favorite tips for teaching kids their clutter threshold?

31.00: ??? What if I would look for something first in a certain place (Ex. Guest bedding in master closet), but don't want to store it there anymore? I want to reclaim master closet for ME.

34.48: My dishwasher broke and as a renter I have no control over when it's replaced. Can I use a broken dishwasher as an exception to "do the dishes" rule? Watching this instead of doing dishes.

36.18: ??is there more to flat surfaces than 5 minute pick up? they are the bane of my existence right now.

38.37: ?? Please help me with the overthinking around the container for things like “memory box”, where I need to decide on how big the actual container is / how many to have… it’s overwhelming math! Ack!

44.48: ??? How do I maintain progress when I am not on site for 3 weeks out of 4? Also we are dealing with autism and ADHD in grandchildren.

47.12: ??? have a huge overflowing craft supply cupboard. would you still not empty it out to sort, would I still start to take items out 1 at a time?

49.00: How do you handle decluttering fatigue? I declutter, then realize I'm really far behind in my chores. I feel I'm exhausted after 15 min, and the mess I made is worse.

50.53: ??? Does the feeling that it'll take HOURS to get a house back under control ever go away? It feels like a huge mess but really only takes 30 minutes or so now, but it doesn't feel like it.

52.29: How do I start organizing /decluttering recipes? Sorry earlier post was too long and got sent in end part.

54.43: ??I’m hitting a mental roadblock with the last 2 questions you ask yourself when decluttering-I wish I could explain to you why, but I don’t feel like I can. (btw, you’re brilliant!)

56.12: ??? What do you do if you have a bedroom as a storage room. The room is filled with young adult children's stuff, old homeschool stuff and things I have from my parent's house? How do I declutter it!

57.08: What do you do about items that are still good and have extras of? Feels like a waste of money, but we are overwhelmed with stuff

20 Comments

@Blankenshipable 3 years ago

Use your broken dishwasher as a drying rack…AFTER you wash the dishes. It’s actually quite nice to have your hands in hot soapy water while listening to Dana… at the same time. ❤️

@marietollett8323 3 years ago

To the viewer who asked about the trash. Establish a trash routine. Since the beginning of 2023, I have added to my evening routine to take out the trash after dinner. I gather all the trash in the trash cans throughout my home. I take it all out nightly combined in 1 trash bag to the outside trash room at the building I live in. This helps my home smell cleaner, I get a few more steps in for the day, and I get a mini mind break to take the short walk outside. My fiancé is trash blind, and he will only take it out if I force him to--so I just handle it.

@antiquesrestoration3874 3 years ago

Dusting and vacuuming my home post massive declutter takes far less time now. I love that so much.

@brg2743 3 years ago

The no mess decluttering works really well. If a horizontal surface gets cleaned, then it makes it easier the next session. It could be a corner that needs cleaned up. Just make something better today totally changes your house over time. Dana is right.

@ilakaiser3778 3 years ago

I used my broken dishwasher as a drainer. Washed and rinsed in the sink , put into broken dishwasher to drip dry. Kept my counter clear.💜🐞

@lisahoward3376 2 years ago (edited)

I'm at the end of clearing out my mom's Hoarded house. Last year I cleared out my uncle's house. After 8 years of caring for them both, MY house is packed. I'm about to rent a THIRD Uhaul box, then put most of it in a storage facility that's cheaper than 3 Uboxes. Keeping 1 to clear out MY house.
Where since 2017 my 2 cats & my uncle's !5! cats (mom & 4 kittens) stayed until I could get the humans under control. (early 2019) Yeah, my house is BAD!
I would need an entire segment for my situation. But the tips are a BIG help! And I just realized this is a month old...

@cheerfulmouse 3 years ago

I have been had a lot of small wins & some decent progress over the past month 🙌
Really getting in a groove, and excited to see how I will address things over the gift giving season 😅
I have taken to heart the phrase often used around here "good use of decluttering time & energy"
Working on the pantry, being more ruthless (LOL, I was the one who looked that meaning up the other week, and have forgotten)

My husband is really starting to understand, and we're helping each other ❤️
And my kids really like the phrase "Better is Good"

@heatherframpton9693 1 year ago

Thanks, Dana K. & Question-askers! Always getting something I can use in our home...❤😊

@brendatomlinson 3 years ago

RECIPES: when I first moved to this city, my SIL’s recipes were a mess. They included internet print outs, hand written paper and recipe cards. I took all her recipes and transcribed them to my computer, fitting 2-3 per page. I printed them and put in sheet protectors into a binder. I’m extra, I made dividers by category. The binder fits in a cabinet, ready at any moment!

@paigeniler5002 3 years ago

For trash: I've figured out that I need to take out the trash when it's 80% full. A trash can tat is 95-100% full is actually above my threshold and feels too overwhelming to deal with....therefore leading to Mt. Trashmore.

@SamCurtis-yk8cv 2 years ago (edited)

Most of my “special” items that are family memories are used in my decor or as a container for something. I try to use them and only keep memory items that fit in with my everyday life. It took some training though. lol. THANK YOU. I do have a binder that I put special drawings and pictures that my granddaughter made and I keep it declutterred. 🙌🏼. Some are framed and in my bedroom and dining room 🥰

@michelleouellette860 3 years ago

Thank you again, Dana. I really look forward to watching your videos! I applied your strategies to my kid's playroom (which I have always tried to keep in order with a toy rotation). But yesterday I told the kids we were going to tidy for 5 minutes and whatever was left I would box up and put upstairs. I picked up trash and kitchen utensils.. seriously?...and they got the rest done. It was so much less stressful than usual!

@catherinenoble5788 3 years ago

I appreciate your comments on your journey. I've found finding a place that can hold what I truly need works best, and continue to remind myself of progress. If no room, and still good for use, it deserves to bless someone else who can choose if they want it. 2nd hand giveaway options have been a way for me to part with less stress on many things over the years.

@Maloma12 3 years ago

~40:00 Deciding where memory-stuff will go and the size of the container FIRST is brilliant!! I was thinking of it the other way around. Choose how much space you want to designate to the container of the category of items. THEN, that's the space I have for ______. AND THEN, I"m going to try to not fill the contatiner. AND not to use the memory box as a de-cluttering tool--it's a "take it there" tool. EXCELLENT!!! You know our "ways out" so well and head us off at every pass!!! Thank you!! 🌿M <><.

@LEDewey_MD 3 years ago

Lol!!! "Borrow a toddler".

@bookworm1956 3 years ago

The bin emptying used to be a problem for me. My ex-husband did it, and then we split up and... after a while I decided I needed a system. I set up reminders on my phone on bin days (when I have to put the bin out into the street to be emptied). Then I used to just put off emptying the bin in the kitchen until that day, to "be efficient and do it all at once". Except I didn't, it was usually the wrong moment, and it often was smelly. And it was frustrating me.
I got over the problem by setting rules against the thing that annoyed me most. So I decided I should empty the kitchen bin "at least once a week as well as every time it's smelly".
The piling up thing applies only to the recycling bin (plastic, packaging, cardboard, tins and cans). That isn't smelly, so I just usually take it in the other hand when I bring down the smelly bin. Another problem solved.
If your main problem is piling up, make a red line on the bin, or decide that nothing may touch the lid from the inside. Then use that as a rule. When it gets there, it needs to be emptied.

@janetsiddoway 3 years ago

My solution to the garbage problem is to hang a plastic grocery bag on a command hook. When it gets full, I think about how awful it would be if the bag falls off the hook. This prompts me to take it out. It is not pretty but it is functional.

@lillianmartinez1593 3 years ago

Dana, as always your videos are awesome. I have been watching and reading all of your amazing ideas and methods. I really have enjoyed your earlier videos where you actually Declutter different parts of your home. Those videos actually helped me so much to understand how to Declutter without making a mess!! It WORKS!! 💕🌴😎